Takuwe, the educational art exhibit about the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, was the topic of a keynote presentation by the CAIRNS director during the statewide Arts Conference. The focus was on two findings while researching for the exhibition that contradict the mainstream narratives of the day of the massacre. One is the weather. Mainstream accounts indicate that the weather was cold and snowy. But the fact is that December 29, 1890, was sunny with a high temperature of 66 degrees; there almost certainly was no snow on the ground at Wounded Knee. The second finding was that contrary to the mainstream accounts suggesting that the killing lasted an hour or less, U.S. soldiers continued to hunt and kill Lakotas until arounbd sundown, which was at 4:23pm that day. 

After a two-and-a-half-year run, the exhibit closed at its final venue last month. But you can still see the artworks and learn about the exhibit by getting a copy of the exhibit catalog, visiting the online version of the exhibit on the CAIRNS website, renting the community-based version of the exhibit for display in your business or institution, or by watching the recently released video by Dalton Coffey.